The Associated Press | The old analog electric meter on the side of your house will soon be replaced by a digital smart meter that will transmit via radio frequency your electric usage and the time of day you are using it.

Kelly's Korner: 'Smart' electric meters won't cause a shock

We often get inquiries from readers concerned about things impacting their daily lives. Many of these inquiries involve some kind of change.

One such question came in last week from a reader who was concerned that her electric utility's plan to install a so-called smart meter on her home would violate her property rights and even endanger her health. She was also concerned the meter could be hacked.I contacted local electric company officials and the state Public Utility Commission for an explanation.Smart meters are a product of electricity deregulation, which created competition among power providers.Competition in the market meant that utilities went from reading the meter on the side of your house once a month and sending you a bill, to trying to determine not only how much electricity a customer is using but at what time of day it is being used.That knowledge allows competing electricity providers to offer pricing plans based on time-of-day usage.Aaron Ruegg, smart meter expert for Met-Ed, said all state utilities regulated by the PUC are required by law to install smart meters across their entire systems no later than the end of 2023.Met-Ed has installed smart meters at the homes of 181,000 customers, or roughly 32 percent of its system. The installations started in Dillsburg, York County. Smart meters won't be installed in Berks County until sometime in 2018, Ruegg said.Most smart meters are installed outside the house. Installing one inside a residence requires the utility to make an appointment with the homeowner to install the meter but that is rare, Ruegg said.The meters do send radio signals to the utility, but those short bursts of data contain highly encrypted information that does not include names, addresses, phone numbers or bank account numbers.The encrypted data cannot be picked up or read by cellphones or other electronic devices. The radio frequencies used by the utilities are much lower than cellphones, microwaves and other home appliances and do not endanger children or the elderly. If you're mowing the lawn and walk past your smart meter it won't zap your pacemaker.An administrative law judge in August found that a woman's claim that the smart meter PECO Energy installed on her home in Philadelphia was endangering her health was without merit, PUC spokesman Nils Hagen-Fredericksen said.Until now, I have heard nothing of smart meters endangering anybody, except the 0.048 cents per kwH and $1.79 per month smart meter charge that was added to our bills to pay for them.